A place for a tired old woman to try to figure things out so that the world makes a bit of sense.

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Racist Remarks

Thank you, Shaw Kenawe, for some excellent research. Remarks in her comments section often are deranged, paralleling such rantings as racism charges from Rush Limbaugh. This set her off, and she found some interesting history of racist remarks by Chief Justice Roberts.

"Though the Supreme Court nominee [John Roberts] offered straight legal advice, and sometimes savvy political suggestions, he also expressed partisan views in the 35,000 pages released yesterday from his years as White House associate counsel from 1982 to 1986.

In some memos, for example, he made jokes about Hispanics and women. For a 1983 Reagan interview in Spanish Today, he said, "I think this audience would be pleased that we are trying to grant legal status to their illegal amigos."He also joked in 1982 about Kickapoo Indians, saying "a group of them made Newsweek by choosing to live in squalid conditions beneath the International Bridge in Eagle Pass, Texas, rather than their Mexican homeland."

And in a 1985 memo about a corporate scholarship program for women, Roberts said, "Some might question whether encouraging homemakers to become lawyers contributes to the common good."

There are more revealing remarks unearthed in Shaw's post, well worth taking into account.

The tenor of voters on the right has long been of this ilk, but it's been kept under wraps by the more balanced members for aeons. Pres. Obama's election seems to have tripped the wire, and the racist, recidivist element has catapulted into the public face admitted on the right. Those of us who have worked with elements of society that still use the 'N' word, and feel threatened if their residual hold on primacy before the law is shaky, are not surprised. I guess, in a way, I'm pleased.

It's rather refreshing to see the office seekers try to shut up their venomous, unleashed, public representatives. Will the base succeed in keeping this essentially crazy persona on display? Oh, I hope so.

'Fraid so. The winger domination has weeded out any remaining party members who had ethics. I have realized in the past few years that when the speaker is 'republican', it soon is evident they're spouting ideology, not fact.